take it for a curse or do things worse Some would have children those that have them mone or wish them gone What is it then to have or have no wife But single thraldome or a double strife Our own affections still at home to please is a disease To crosse the sea to any forein soil perils and toil Wars with their noise affright us when they ceasâ— we are worse in peace What then remains but that we still should cry Not to be born or being born to die The King of Englands Soveraignty proved and approved by the Common Law to be above both Parliament and people inferiour to none on earth but God Almighty and that neither the people of England nor any other his Subjects either distributively or collectively in one intire body ought to call the King in question for his actions though they be never so wicked The sweet harmony and concordance of the Law of God and the Law of the Realm in maintaining the Royal Prerogative of our Soveraign manifested The Kings Coronation is onely a Ceremony no part of his Title How the Changeling Statesmen of our times who will not endure that the King should have Soveraignty over them his vassals make themselves absolute Kings over the Scripture and Law books and make the Law and the Gospel speak in what sense their wicked wills and lusts vouchsafe Resistance of the power unlawfull The Subjects duty to their Soveraign Their Reward and remedy if they be punished wrongfully Reverend Bracton cleared from Mr. Pryns false aspersions Mr. Pryns Character his Book entitled the Soverâ—ign Power of Parliaments and Kingdomes arraigned convicted and condemned and his confident averment therein That it was not Saint Pauls nor the Holy Ghosts meaning to inhibit defensive wars of the Subjects against their King proved to be Apocriphal and that Saint Paul like an honest man spoke what he meant when he said Let every soul be subject to the higher powers though Mr. Pryn would have his words and his meaning two things How Mr. Pryn worshipped the long Parliament heretofore as a Sacred Deity when it acted wickedly and now despiseth it as idolatry and an Advertisement to him to write a book of Retractations To go about to prove that the King of England c. hath the Supreme power over the Parliament and people deserveth as much derision as to go about to prove that the Sun shineth at noon day or that the heavens are above the earth yet since there are those amongst us who like the Sodomites grope for light in the clearest day and have the iâ—pudence to publish for truth that which their conscience telleth them is false I will give you a tast of our Lord the Kings Soveraignty which lieth dispersed and scattered about in our Law books Jus Câ—ronae The Law of the Crown is the principal part of the Laws of this Realm Co. Lit. 11.b. 15. b 344. a 25 E. 3 cap. 1. Register inter jura Regia 61 c. For since the Common Law of the Land is common usage expressed in our books of Law and judicial Records Co. Lit. 344 a. Plowden 195. Finch 77a. The Government of this Kingdome by a Royal Soveraign is become a Fundamental Law being as antient as history it self and used from the time whereof the memory of antiquity is not to the contrary And since that the ligeance faith obedience of the Subject is due unto the King by the Law of nature Co. l. 6. fol. 12. as well before as after the municipal and Judicial Laws were made our Law-books like faithfull Subjects being the Magazine of law from their Alpha to Omega could preach no other Doctrine than Allegeance faith and due obedience to their Soveraign the King whom they all confesse and testifie to be the Supreme lord and head of the Common-wealth immediately under God above all persons in all causes Finch in French fol. 20. in English 81. Co. lib. 2.15 Le Roy est caput salus Reipublicae à capite bona valetudo tranfit in omnes lib. 4.124 the King is the fountain of Justice tranquillity and repose Plowden 242. Therefore Nil desperandum Rege duce Auspice Rege Nothing can come amisse to us the King being our guide and Soveraign Reges sacro aleo uncti spiritualis jurisdictionis sunt capaces Kings being the Lords Anointed are nursing Fathers to our Church The King of England est Monarcha Imperator in Regno suo Davis Irish reports fol. 60. the Almighty hath said that they are gods and our common laws of England being founded on the laws of God do likewise attribute to them a shadow of the Divine excellencies viz. VVingates Maxim fol. 301. 1 Divine perfection 2 Infinitenesse 3. Majesty 4 Soveraignty 5. perpetuity 6. Justice 7. Truth 8 Omniscienc Of which I have already treated Nay as God is a King in Heaven so the King is stiled a God upon Earth Finch 81. He is the Head Father Physician and husband of the Common-wealth He is Gods Lieutenant Deputy Vicegerent receiving his Commission from God not from the people These are the titles which the Common Laws of England give to the King A Divine sentence is in the lips of the King his mouth transgresseth not in judgement Prov. 16.10 saith Gods word Therefore the Law receiveth it for a Maxim That the King can do no wrong Co. Lit. f. 19. He is Rex gratia Dei non populi King by the grace of God not of the people The most high ruleth in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will Dan. 4.17 Therfore all the Lands and Tenements in England in the hands of Subjects are holden mediately or immediately of the King but the King is Tenant to none but God 8 H. 7 12. Co. Lit. 1. For Praedium Domini Regis est Directum Dominium cujus nullus author est nisi Deus Only God is the author and Donor of the Kings Dominions Therefore the possessions of the King are called sacra Patrimonia Dominica Coronae Regis The King is the Lords anointed 1 Sam. 10.1 Therefore the Law giveth reverence to his Person and maketh him supreme in Ecclesiastical causes The villain of a Lord in the presence of the King cannot be seized because the presence of the King is a protection to the villain for that time 27 ass Pla. 49. Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly Job 34.18 Therefore no Civil much lesse Criminal action lyeth against the King if he doth unjustly the only remedie against the King is by petition and supplication for who shall command the King Stamford Praer fol. 5. Bracton fol. 5. Flera fol. 17. Finch 13. The Prerogative which the Common-law giveth the King is so large as Sir Henry Finch saith that you shall find that to be law almost in every case of the King that is law in no case of the Subject Finch fol. 85.
authority is originally and radically in the people from them by consent derived to Kings immediately mediately only from God that the donation or collation of the power is from the Community the approbation only from God and that Soveraignty and power in a King is by conveyance from the people by a trust devolved upon him and that it is Conditional fiduciary and proportioned according as it pleaseth the Community to entrust more or lesse and to be weighed out ounce by ounce and that the King may be opposed and resisted by violence force and arms and the people resume their power which we deny and shall prove by the law of God of Nations of Nature of the Common and Statute law of England that the Royal power and Soveraignty of Kings is primarily formally and immediatly from God and that the people through pretence of Liberty Privilege Law Religion or what Colour soever ought not to oppose imprison resist much lesse Murther their King though he be wicked and subvert Law and Religion much lesse when he is pious upholdeth and maintaineth both First I conceive that there is no man so impudently wicked as to deny that there is a God who created all things Heaven and Earth Angels and Men the power of Angels and the power of Men there is one power of Angels and another of Men so there is a difference of powers amongst men the power of a King inferior to no power on earth but only Gods the power of the Subjects inferior to the power of the King the power of a Father over his Children and the power of a Husband over his Wife and so every power limitted by God and as one Star doth excel another in brightnesse so one power doth excel another in dignity and glory There is nothing more plain and evidently asserted in the Scripture than that Kingly power is the most Sacred Divine and glorious of all powers immediately from God peculiarly owned by him as a power wherin his Nature and Majesty is most manifested and as I have already shewed hath a shadow of all Divine Excellencies Man was made Gen. 1.26 and God said let us make man in our Image But man had no power or dominion untill God further said And let them have dominion over so that it is from hence most clear that man had no power or Soveraignty untill God gave it him and the first man to whom God gave it was Adam a King the sole Monarch of the world Then let not our new Sectaries fondly wickedly conceit that royal authority is originally and radically from them that it is by their consent immediatly derived from them to Kings Since the Kingly power office was before they were born or had any power from whence such authority could be derived By me Kings raign saith God not only particular Kings as Kings of the Jews c. but all Kings Prov. 85.1 Qui succedit in locum succedit in jus Therefore whosoever claim unto themselves that power which is universally and perpetually peculiar unto the God of all power do Blaspheme and rob God of his honour and what lyes in them do make God no God and themselves the only Almighty But the people which challenge unto themselves the original power of earthly Dominion do challenge unto themselves that power which is universally and perpetually peculiar to the God of all power Therefore those people do blaspheme and rob God of his honour and what lyes in them do make God no God and themselves the only Almighty There is no power but of God The powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13.1 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake Doubtless our superintendants did never learn their Doctrine from this Text but they may aswell learn it from hence as from any other place in Scripture for I finde nothing in my Bible contrary to this but every text in Scripture doth harmoniously agree with this and unanimously resolve that Kings are of God they are Gods Children of the most high his Servants â—ir publick Ministers his Deputies his Vicegerenis his Lieutenants their Throne their Crown their Sword their Scepter their Judgements are Gods their Power Person and charge are of Divine extract and so their authority and person are both sacred and inviolable God removeth Kings and setteth up Kings Daniel 2.21 Thou settetst a Crown of pure Gold on his head Psal 21.3 I gave thee a King in mine anger and took him away in my wrath Hos 13.11 Which proveth that God not the people did institute Kings and that God not the people should take them away God hath spoken once yea twice have I heard this that power belongeth unto God Psal 62.11 By him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers Col. 1.16 And now O Lord my God thou hast made thy servant King instead of David my Father 1 Kings 3.7 I have provided me a King saith God 1 Sam. 16.1 Whole heaps of Scipture might I gather to confirm that Kings are solely and immediatly dependent from God and independent from all others which truth the suffrages of the Holy Fathers which are but as so many Commentaries on the Scripture and therefore not so necessary here to be recited do affirm and maintain But some may ask me how Kings in these dayes can be said to be immediatly from God when somtimes they are elected Kings by the people sometimes they come to their Crowns by Conquest and sometimes hereditarily by succession and never by extraordinary manifestation and revelation from Heaven as did Moses Saul David To this I briefly answer That as Divines hold a thing is immediatly from God several wayes 1. When it is solely from God and presupposeth nothing ordinary or humane antecedent to the obtaining of it So was Moses made captain over Israel and so had Joshua his authority But Soveraignty now to our Kings is not so conveyed but some humane act is alwayes intervening 2. When the Donation and Collation of the power to such a person is immediatly from God though some act of man be antecedent as Mathias was an Apostle immediatly from Christ though first the Apostles put two a part and cast lots yet neither of these two acts jointly or severally did virtually or formally collate the Apostolical power upon him When an Atturney maketh livery of seisin according to his letter of Atturny the Feoffee is in by the Feoffor and not by the Atturny though his act was interposed Is is not the Feoffment of the Atturney but of the Feoffor and the Feoffee his Title is only from the Feoffor though he had not had it but by the means of the Atturny In the second sense Soveraignty is conferred on kings immediatly from God though some created act as Election Succession Conquest or any other
should put to death Traytors and Conspirators against his State should be also counted a Tyrant And indeed how should good Princes be assured of their lives if under the colour of Tyranny they might be slain of their subjects by whom they ought to be defended Then what madness is that Nation intoxicated with who throw down a pious good and religious Prince to promote a multitude of lawless Tyrants whose little finger is heavier than the whole loynes of their Lawful native Soveraign The King as I said is the Husband of the Commonwealth and the Wife is not greater than her Husband because she had once power to chuse whom she would and because the man could not have been her Husband without her consent It is no argument that she hath power to turn away her Husband because she made him her Husband No it is God who giveth the Marital power he gave her the Husband and gave him power over her so that she cannot tâ—rn him from her though he prove never so wicked So though the people chuse them a King and are the cause sine qua non yet it is God who is the author of his royal power And the people can no more dethrone him and elect another than the wife can her Husband And it is as good an argument to hold that the wife hath power to put away her Husband and chuse another because she made him her Husband As it is that the people may cast off their obedience to their Soveraign and set up another because they made him their King The Cardinals make the Pope and the Clerks the Bishop but it would be a strange thing to them if one should tell them that therefore the Cardinals and Clerks might degrade them when they pleased Suppose the Souldiers should chuse them a General would not the General think it strange Logick to argue that therefore the Soldiers might turn him out of his office when they pleased Indeed where the superior makes an Inferior officer he may deject him at his pleasure As in a Prineipality which is nothing else but an Aristocracy or Democracy where the people create a Magistrate to rule so long as they please they may turn him out at their will because they alwaies tetain a power of Constituting and rejecting him when they think fit So the King may turn out Parliaments when he will because they depend upon him and their power is inferior to his But when the woman hath taken a Husband when the Commonwealth is married and subjected to a King then the Commonwealth hath no power but all her power is ttansmitted to her Husband the King For Omnia quae sunt uxoris sunt ipsius viri non habet uxor potestatem sui sed vir All that the wife hath is the husbands and the wife hath not power over her self but the husband The people by their election denude themselves of all their power and transfer it to the King so that he is the only fountain from whence they draw every drop of power they have As when Valentinian was desired of his people to admit of a consort in his Empire he answered them In eorum fuisse potestate priusquam eum ad imperium vocarent id non facere jam vero vocato imperatore eos non posse nec ab eo impetrare quod nefas crederet illis concedere That before they had elected him it was in their power either to elect him or another but now he being elected they had no such power neither ought they for to ask that which he thought not fit to grant them It is a prejudice to a royal mind to be compelled to any thing compulsion diminisheth the worth of a voluntary goodness It is against the nature of Royalty to be restrained which makes Kings say Licet Legibus soluti sumus attamen legibus vivimus Though no man hath power to compel us to live according to the Laws Yet we will For Decet tantae Majestati eas servare leges quibus ipse solutus esse videtur It is the part of a royal Prince nay very decent and becoming so great Majesty voluntarily to observe those Laws from which he is free German vates Nihil ut verum fatear magis esse Decorum Aut regale puto quam legis jure solutum Sponte tamen legi sese supponere regem But if our Prince should not rule his life according to the Laws yet it is our duties so to do and we are commanded to obey him and acknowledge him our King though he be never so wicked For we are his Servants Nay his Servants by birth and therefore enjoyned by a command to serve him 1 Pet. 2.18 Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle But also to the froward For this is thanks worthy if a man for Conscience toward God indure grief suffering wrongfully Nullus nascitur liber ab imperio No man is born exempted from the subjection of Government Our Saviour himself as man was not free from this for he was subject to his Father and Mother Luke 2.51 and also to the King though he is the King of Kings and all earthly Kings are only dependent upon God and Christ whose vicegerents they are I admire with what impudence our terrae filii these screeching Oules the men of our pale-face'd times can blasphemously give the Almighty the lye and say per nor reges regnant by us Kings reign we give Kings and take them away When God plainly telleth them and all the world per me Reges regnant By me Kings reign I give Kings and take them away and doubtless these Quacksalvers have as great authority and warrant from the Scripture to say By us the Sun ruleth the day and the Moon the night and we gave the heavens and the earth their being as they have to maintain this their detestable opinion viz. that the Kings power is radically in the people and derived from them to him For nemo est Dominus suae vitae no man hath power over his own life and therefore none can give that to another which he hath not in himself God only hath power over life and death and he hath given this power to Kings as he hath evidently declared in his holy writ And I am sure God who hath said that by him Kings reign is true Rom. 3.4 And every man who saith the contrary is a Lyar. Then if God only instituted and gave Kings God can only take them away For Eodem modo quo quid constituitur dissâ—lvitur Things are dissolved as they are contracted Therefore every man should say with the French Bishop mentioned in Greog Turon Hist 4. lib. 5. Si quis de nobis O Rex Justitiae tramites transcendere voluerit a te corripi potest si tu vero excesseris quis te corripiet loquimur enim tibi sed si volueris audis si autem nolueris quis te damnabit